We live in a democracy and you are entitled to be invited to attend and contribute to any court action against you. If you did not get any notice about the court hearing, other than the vague mention on the phone, you have the option to obtain the details (from EDF or the court) and apply to the court to have the ruling overturned. The court that was used should be one that is local to you.

You can also contact http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/

I have had no end of problems with EDF energy for my electric for the last 9 months!

Due to an error on my part a direct debit bounced back in September and ever since they have been incapable of actually taking money from me via either debit card or direct debit!

At the end of January after being threatened with being taken to court and having a prepayment meter put in I called them up and shouted asking them why would they threaten to take me to court when I keep trying to pay them but they wont take it. I was "fobbed off" to put it politely...

I gave them my card details and asked them to process the payment while I waited on the phone but was told they couldn't. After a week, once again they had not taken the money from my account so I called them again! This time the person I spoke to actually took the payment whilst I was on the phone so I thought everything was going to be ok!

On tuesday this week I recieved a bill for £1068.59! For starters I refuse to believe my wife baby and I could use £500.00 of electric in three months so I called them to give them a meter reading and query the bill. At this point I was told my account was in a bad debt status and on weds they were going to court to take a warrant out to enter my property and fit a prepayment meter! I asked for more details and was told that I had 28 days to pay the balance of the bill and they would not accept part payment as I had broken a repayment arrangement with them several times before. I argued that that on the 1 occasion when the DD returned, that was my fault but the rest are down to them. I was told there was nothing more they could do.

This morning at 11 my wife called me up in tears saying that a man from EDF was there to install a prepayment meter!

I asked her to pass me to the EDF man and spoke to him about the problem at hand. He told me that EDF had actually already been to court on the 4th Jan and already had the warrant and that was why he was there. Thankfully my mother in law was able to step in and pay the balance off for us so the installer did not put the new meter in.

Now I have had five mins to think about things, what the installer told me ran totally opposite to what the telephone operator told me on tuesday.

I am still at work at the moment and absolutely livid with EDF about this. I'm hoping someone can give me some insight as to what options if any I have for complaint etc.